The Animal I Have Become
by bloodytuesday
Summary: It's been eight months since Bella dropped in on the NCIS team and reeked havoc in all of their lives. Tony's apartment just now stopped smelling like smoke. So how will the team react when they're sent down to New Orleans for a case?


A/N: This is a sequel to my other story, Faster Kill Pussycat, if you haven't read that one you will need to...  
Furthermore, anyone who did read that story and has waited so patiently for this sequel, I'm sorry that I took so long!

Usual Disclaimers Apply.

Forgive, sounds good  
Forget, I'm not sure I could  
They say time heals everything  
But I'm still waiting

I'm through with doubt  
There's nothing left for me to figure out  
I've paid a price  
And I'll keep paying

I'm not ready to make nice  
I'm not ready to back down  
I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time  
To go round and round and round  
-Not Ready To Make Nice by The Dixie Chicks-

2:05 A.M.

Abby shut her eyes, and then opened them again, double checking that her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. Nope. Still 2:05 and someone was banging very loudly on her front door. Most teens would worry their parents might hear; Abby didn't have to worry about that, she just worried about who it could be. In this city, it was nothing for random drunks to pound on your door at night.

Stumbling out of her bed, she slowly made her way through the living room to stand in front of the door. Taking a deep breath, she unlocked the bolt and grabbed the baseball bat that was leaning against the wall before swinging the wooden door open. She held the bat in the air, ready to swing at any foolish drunk that mistakenly picked her house to annoy.

"Please don't swing that at me tonight, I've had enough head trauma for about a month."

Abby squinted out into the darkness, the heavy rain making it nearly impossible to see. "Bella?"

The figure stepped forward, pushing her hood backwards. Her red hair stuck to her face, forming a perfect frame around the black eye that stood out against her pale skin. "Who else would it be at two o'clock in the morning?"

Abby quickly moved, allowing her best friend to step inside. Without another look, Bella began to walk towards Abby's room. As Abby shut her bedroom door, Bella sat down on the bed. She couldn't help but notice the helplessness on her best friend's face as she joined Bella, pulling the smaller girl into a hug.

"What did you do this time?"

Bella took a deep breath. "I fed Dice some table scraps, he got sick, made a small mess in the house..."

Abby squeezed her tighter. "I'm so sorry."

Bella took a shaky breath. "Better me than the dog.'

**XxXxXX**

"Abby. Abby!"

Abby jolted from her memory, turning to face the angry voice behind her. "Gibbs!" She beamed at him, rubbing her eyes, and tried to forget the memory.

"Have you gotten a hit on the fingerprint yet?" He asked, holding on tightly to the Cafe-POW he had for her.

She continued to smile, turning to her computer. "Petty Officer Jake Thomas, he was dishonorably discharged after assaulting Lieutenant Rogers two years ago."

Gibbs stared hard at the computer screen. "What was the fight about?"

"Apparently the Petty Officer was sick of how the Lieutenant treated him." She smiled again. "Also, Ducky told me that the ligature marks on the Lieutenant's neck were definitely done by a left handed person. Petty Officer Thomas is left handed."

Gibbs smiled, handing her the Cafe-POW. "That's good work, Abbs."

She nodded, greedily taking the drink from him. He wasn't even out the door before she began drinking it. She loved it when a case was solved quickly, it always made Gibbs happy, which made her happy.

She sighed, walked into her office and pulled out her cellphone, staring down at it with a frown. She held down speed dial four and waited for an answer.

"Hello love!" Bella's voice boomed from the other end, causing Abby to smile.

"I've decided I like you better with your natural hair color."

"Wow, talk about random."

Abby grinned. "No, I was just thinking about you in high school, you looked so good with red hair, I mean I love the blond, but red was awesome…"

Bella laughed. "It's been eight months since I was last up there, trust me. I've dyed it again. You know me, I can never keep it anything but red for too long."

Abby shook her head. "So how are things? I haven't heard from you in a few days."

She could hear Bella take a deep breath. "I'm sorry, been so busy, have a new apprentice in the shop, I swear she's such a talented artist, but as soon as she picks up the gun she starts shaking, says she's nervous cause she doesn't want to screw up. I don't know if she'll ever actually do it."

Abby grinned. "Let her work on you."

"Hell no! Remember when I let Jason do that? Had a wonky cross on my thigh for weeks until I could get Max to fix it."

Abby laughed, she knew that would get a rise out of her. "Well then friend, how will she ever learn?"

Bella grunted. "The same damn way I did, by growing some balls and just doing it."

Abby's office door opened, Tony stood in the doorway, looking at her expectantly.

"Oh, Bells, I gotta go, Tony's here." She spoke with a grin, looking at the agent.

"Alright, I'll talk to you later, love you." Abby pretended she didn't hear the crack in Bella's voice.

"You too." She hung up the phone, smiling at Tony. "What can I do for you Tony?"

"We're ordering food, hungry?"

She stood up with a nod. "Starving."

**XxXxXxXxX**

"Ow, ow, ow, ow."

Bella shook her head, dipping the needle back into the ink. She wasn't even touching the girl and she was screaming, some people just weren't meant to get tattoos; and this was definitely one of those people.

"Just breathe Andrea, you're okay." Bella spoke softly, trying her best to calm the girl's nerves. She knew first tattoos were tough, but this chick was definitely taking it over board.

"I'm sorry, I know my being a baby, but no one told me it would hurt this much!" She began to squeal again as Bella pushed the needle back to the girl's back.

Bella grunted, there was only one tattoo she had that ever bothered her. She got one on her foot and swore she would never do it again. "Yea, the first one always sucks…" She lied, eyeing her new apprentice, Maddi, who only grinned.

She was having the hardest time focusing for some reason, her eyes were set on the butterfly she was tattooing, but her mind was somewhere else entirely. She was working purely on autopilot, no thought process what so ever.

She tried telling herself it was due to the fact that tattooing a butterfly was one of her least favorite things; she loved doing art that was original or at least not as common as a butterfly. It also amazed her that the girl was willing to pay almost double for the shop owner to do it, instead of one of her employees who were more than capable of doing a butterfly.

She sighed, focusing back on the crying girl in front of her, the girl's shoulders began to twitch with each line of profanities that left her mouth. Bella stopped, sitting back in her chair. "Look Andrea I understand it hurts, but you gotta stop twitching, other wise the butterfly you want is quickly going to turn into a turtle."

"What? Did you mess it up? Oh my God!"

"No, I'm just saying if you don't stop twitching, I will." She shook her head, leaning forward to resume working. It was customers like this that made her want to scream and kick them out of her shop. Either they had no faith in her or they were just plain dumb.

And this one was pretty dumb. She bit her lip to keep from cussing at the girl, just a few more minutes and she would be done, then she could go home and sleep.

**XxXxX**

When the elevator doors opened, Tony had to drag himself to his desk. Ziva peered at him over her computer screen as he fell back into his chair.

"Late night Tony?"

He smirked. "You could say that."

Ziva shook her head and turned her attention back to her computer. After several minutes of silence, Abby came skipping from the elevator with McGee in tow.

"Well, good morning McGoober how long have you been here?" Tony remarked, watching the younger agent walk to his desk.

"Timmy was just helping me with something in the lab." Abby replied with a grin, bouncing from her caffeine high.

"I'm sure he was." Tony mumbled, pretending to be busy on his computer.

"Tony…" Abby began to reply, but was cut off by Gibbs walking into the bullpen.

"Grab your gear, we've got a plane to catch."

"Oh, where to boss?" McGee asked as he stood up, gathering his stuff.

"We got a body in New Orleans."

Abby smiled as they walked past her towards the elevator. "You guys should tell Bells I said 'hey!'" She didn't miss the glare she received from Tony before the doors shut.


End file.
